Multiply 365 Day 254 - First picking, first sitting

 

I didn't want to bore you with a fantasy football post, but then I didn't expect this to happen, at least this early in the year, so I guess that makes it blog worthy.

For the record I did okay during week 1 of the NFL season. I went 2-1 in the three leagues I am in, but of course the loss came in the league where I am playing for money. But if I did anything right on draft day it was going hard after Ray Rice, who I have in all three leagues. Of course next week Ray Rice could break an ankle and I will be on here bitching about how bad my luck is, but early on it seems to be a wise pick.

That isn't why I am her though, I am not going to break down how I did in each individual league. That would be a time consuming process that would entail me going into the differences in scoring in the three leagues and I don't have the time for that. Instead I am going to tell a story about the bar league and go from there.

The thing about being in a fantasy league for almost two decades now is that some teams come and some go. You have your core teams that show up every year, but there are always a couple of teams that may be in one year but not the next. This year we had a league member who couldn't commit to the league, he had some personal things going on that took precedence which is way cool with me. This isn't life or death after all, it's a game. While I probably put forth more effort on my fantasy football teams than I do blogging, they carry roughly the same amount of importance to me in the grand scheme of things, the difference being there is money involved in fantasy football. I still haven't figured out a way for this page to generate any revenue. So there is that.

So we were stuck with 11 teams and a call went out to see if someone could come up with a 12^th person. Not that 12 teams are needed, you can do a schedule with an odd number of teams (I have done it plenty of times as commissioner) it is just more work is all. But ideally we like to run with 12, just for the sake of balance and what not.

George posts a message in the league about a person who used to play in the league, Chadd, and whether or not we would like to have him back. I got along with Chadd when I was commissioner, though no matter what we set the league buy in as (we played for cash then), he would always suggest that next time we should play for more. Not that we were the most expensive league out there, but at the time (2005 http://football99.myfantasyleague.com/2005/home/77923) we were playing with a $100 buy in, which isn't cheap by any standards, let alone ones for a bunch of guys who spent much of their time drinking their money away while working cheap ass jobs. But if that was the only thing I could think of, well then it wasn't a biggie so I said sure he could be the 12^th team.

About a day or so later I get the message from George saying they would like to play for money again this year. A cheap $20 buy in, winner take all. No problem I think, we had played without a cash prize for a while but that didn't mean we couldn't go back. Worst case scenario I don't win the league and I give $20 to one of my friends. Trust me, I have made far worse investments with my money. Then the $20 becomes $50. Again I don't mind, though as treasurer I do suggest that if everyone decides to play for cash (we didn't make it mandatory because it was suggested a week or so before the draft) then we might want to divvy up the cash a little bit. Maybe two or three prizes, depending on how many people want to play for money.

Draft day comes around and who would get the #1 pick overall? Chadd. I already blogged about how I was kind of bumming in the #3 draft spot, but it worked out okay (Ray Rice fell to #3). But Chadd had the first pick in the draft of anyone, and he took Adrian Peterson. I would have done the very same thing in that spot. So this will not be a blog complaining about someone's draft strategy. Which is good, I am sure your eyes would glaze over at the prospect.

The draft goes pretty uneventfully. Some good natured ribbing back and forth. At one point Gary put on “The Lion King” to entertain his daughter while he drafted, so any time Gary would take too long on his pick I would joke that he was caught up in the movie. And there were jokes from drafts past, like Damon always drafting Rod Smith back in the day, or the dreaded free agent signing of Craphonso Thorpe (look that one up in your free time).

With the start of the NFL season on Thursday, that also started fantasy football season. And my team got off to a rocky start, not because of anything I did, but because my opponent had Drew Brees, who had himself a very good game even if his team lost. There is always Sunday to get those points back. Not that I did, I already said that I lost. But the story here is Chadd. And while his pick of Peterson was serviceable enough on Sunday (90+ yards rushing, good for 6 points in our league) it certainly wasn't spectacular. Then again, rare if ever is there the guy that will score a ton of points for you every week. And I admit I didn't pay all that much attention to how the rest of his team did, (I wasn't playing him after all, so I had my own worries on Sunday). But I log into Yahoo on Monday to see just how bad I was getting beat and I happened to look down at the league's message board and there are posts from Chadd down there. Firs he starts bitching about how you can pick up players, then it is bitching about the scoring rules, then we are all “cheap ass cunt whores” because we are only playing for $50 (which he hadn't even paid yet mind you) and he will not play for less than $100 next year. Since I am only treasurer and not commissioner I could have easily stepped away from this mess, but what the hell? So I put it to Chadd bluntly, that since I am not commissioner there is certainly nothing I can do as far as his having a team in the league goes, but if he is going to continue to act like this there is nothing in the rules that requires me to take money from anyone, so he will not have to worry about playing for money because he will not be part of that equation. He continues his tirade and finally I had had enough and just told him that if does send an entry fee in it will be returned to him, and that he could take his fee and shove it up his ass for all I care.

Of course it turns out that I am not the only one who apparently felt that way as George went ahead and kicked Chadd out of the league this morning. Just went all “SMU death penalty” on him, banned from the league, from contacting anyone in the league, from future participation in the league. Just stick a fork in him, he is done kinda goodness. So let this be a lesson to you kids, don't ever, ever get the #1 overall pick.